The Weekly Bev - 27th Edition

💥 Hydrant is LIVE

As many of you know, Hydrant officially launched on September 19th! Let’s go!!! After almost a year of work, our baby is officially out there. Small things like finally being able to directly link people to the Hydrant website (hydrantpay.com) has been extremely satisfying. Our main marketing push for the launch came from the mesothelioma advert-inspired video that we broke down in the last Weekly Bev, and it’s been great to see so many shares on the video. If you know of any freelancers of any kind plagued by the horrors of net 30, please send them the video or pass on my email [email protected]. I’d love to chat :)

Our creator base has grown 50% since launch. In total transparency, we hoped sign-ups would double, but growth has been a little slower than that. The hurdle of getting a new user to trust a platform that handles your payments is no easy task, but we are up for it. We also know that word of mouth is our most powerful ally. We’re dead focused on delivering that special "aha moment" when a creator receives a payment weeks, sometimes even months, in advance of when they normally would, which we know will inspire them to share their experience with friends. For instance, we had a creator reach out who is so excited about the service that they want to film a podcast-style FAQ video answering anything and everything a creator could want to know about Hydrant to help spread the word. We’re filming that asap.

As users that have signed up since launch begin to process their first payments via Hydrant, we’re focusing on tightening up the operational loop to get invoices approved as soon as possible. While there’s a lot left to refine, the level of backend automation now allows us to handle significantly more users than we could during the beta phase.

On the marketing front, the bulk of our efforts will be focused on building trust, educating users, and creating an intimate community of creators and freelancers. We know that as a creator you might have to see or hear about us 3-4 times before you explore, so we want to get in front of the community. I have a lot of ideas, one of which involves throwing a funeral for net 30 ⚰️…I’m stoked to build a community around Hydrant with a lot of hand-to-hand combat on the marketing side (a figure of speech of course), education, and non-scalable efforts. Do you have an idea for the next great Hydrant marketing push? Let me know!

This is just the beginning, and while we’re aiming for slow, steady growth, we’re confident that with continued product improvements, Hydrant will become the go-to platform for creators to get paid net now. Make sure to check out the website and let me know your thoughts!

❓️ Mystery Links

One, two, three :)

👀 North Face Shoot #8

I recently wrapped up my eighth shoot with The North Face, and it's been an incredible journey working with such a renowned brand for over a year now. This is my longest-running freelance gig, outside of some of the podcast work I’ve done in the past, and it’s exciting to have a recurring client at this scale. I shot my first project with them last October, and we’ve been on a one-shoot-per-month cadence since then.

What makes this partnership so fulfilling is the creative freedom and trust they’ve given me. I’ve carved out a niche producing short-form, social-native videos that strike a balance of highlighting the product without feeling overproduced. I also think the social and leadership teams at the North Face appreciate my working style.

On these shoots, I really make an effort to be as easy to work with as possible, especially in times of tightening marketing budgets. My goal is always to provide the brand with maximum value, so the decision to work with me is a no-brainer. A simple but impactful thing you can do as a freelancer in these situations is really push to grab a meal or do some kind of activity away from the shoot to get more personable with the team. I think a wrap up meal goes such a long way in terms of codifying a relationship and gives everyone a nice excuse to think about what’s next on the horizon…which is invaluable for long-term collaboration.